Our Trustees
The Trustees of The Royal Foundation each undertake a balance of responsibilities divided between strategic direction, governance, oversight and fundraising. The Trustees meet at least quarterly on a formal basis and they are accountable in law for the work of the Foundation.
The Rt Hon Lord Hague of Richmond, William Hague
ChairmanThe Rt Hon Lord Hague of Richmond, William Hague
The Rt Hon Lord Hague of Richmond, William Hague, served for 26 years in the British House of Commons until he stood down in 2015. In that time, he served in many senior roles, including Leader of the House of Commons, but is best known as the Leader of the Conservative party, 1997-2001, and First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary, 2010-2014. He now pursues a wide range of business and charitable activities. He is also a well-known writer, as a weekly columnist of the Times and a best-selling author of historical biographies.Alice Webb
Alice Webb
Alice Webb is Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group’s Mercury Studios. Prior to this Alice spent 15 years at the BBC in a number of roles. As Chief Operating Officer and then Director of BBC North she was a key figure in relocating key BBC departments and over 35,000 hours of output a year to MediaCityUK in Salford.
Latterly, Alice was Director of BBC Children’s & Education - leading the BBC’s output and activity for Under 16’s – including CBeebies, CBBC and BBC Bitesize. More recently, Alice led the launch of the BBC’s hugely successful Bitesize Daily which supported millions of children across the country during the coronavirus pandemic.
Claire Wills
Claire Wills
Claire Wills is a senior partner at global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and recently served as the firm’s London Managing Partner. She joined Freshfields in 1992, becoming a partner in May 2001. Claire is a Governor of Rugby School and also Chair of the Arnold Foundation Board, established by Rugby School in 2003.Jean-Christophe Gray
CBEJean-Christophe Gray
Jean-Christophe Gray CBE is Private Secretary to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. He previously worked at HM Treasury since 2002 in a variety of roles, including: Director, Public Services (2016-2020); Press Secretary to two Chancellors of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling and George Osborne (2009-11); and Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown (2004-06). He was the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman in No10 Downing Street 2012-2015, and has most recently (2020-2021) been seconded to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). Prior to joining the Civil Service, he worked for Procter & Gamble and was briefly a parliamentary assistant to then MP for Wimbledon. He read history at the University of Oxford, and has a MSc in European Politics & Policy from the London School of Economics.Lady Pinsent
Lady Pinsent
Demetra Pinsent is the CEO of British beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury, a Non-Executive Director of Belmond Ltd and a Trustee of The Royal Foundation. Prior to this, she was a Partner at McKinsey & Company where she co-led the European Luxury Goods Practice and advised leading global retailers and consumer businesses. She has also served as an Advisory Board Member for Walpole, the British luxury goods association and Aston Martin.Dame Pippa Harris
Dame Pippa Harris
Pippa Harris is an Oscar-nominated, BAFTA award-winning, film and television producer, who established Neal Street Productions in 2003 alongside Sam Mendes and Caro Newling.
The company’s work includes the hugely successful BBC series Call the Midwife which Pippa has executive produced for over a decade, as well as the multi-award winning First World War movie, 1917, which Pippa produced. Neal Street’s recent stage productions include the Tony award-winning The Lehman Trilogy, and the acclaimed productions of The Motive and The Cue, and Hamnet. Pippa also produced the movies Away We Go, Starter for Ten, and Things We Lost in the Fire, and executive produced the Oscar-nominated Revolutionary Road, and the hit TV series Britannia and Penny Dreadful for Showtime/Sky. Most recently Pippa produced the BAFTA-nominated film Empire of Light starring Olivia Colman and Micheal Ward, written and directed by Sam Mendes.
Following her tenure as Chair of BAFTA, Pippa is now their Vice President of Television, and is director of albert, the BAFTA led sustainability consortium. Pippa is also Chair of Charleston, a museum and gallery which was home of the Bloomsbury group. She is an Ambassador for Women for Women International and a Patron of the neonatal charity Best Beginnings. Before setting up Neal Street Productions, Pippa was the Head of Drama Commissioning for the BBC. In 2015 she was made a Dame in the Dissolution Honours.
Sir Ron Kalifa
OBESir Ron Kalifa
Ron Kalifa is Chairman of Network International. He is a Non-Executive Director of the Court of Directors to the Bank of England, the England & Wales Cricket Board and a member of the Council of Imperial College, London. Ron was invited to lead an independent Fintech Strategic Review for the UK at the request of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Report was published in February 2021. Ron is also an Operating Partner for Advent International.
Previously, Ron led Worldpay for over 10 years as CEO including its divestment into private equity ownership in 2010. He served as Vice Chairman, thereafter, remaining as an Executive director until February 2020.
Simon Patterson
Vice ChairmanSimon Patterson
Simon Patterson joined Silver Lake in 2005 and is a Managing Director and co-head of the firm’s activities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He is currently a board member of New Zealand Rugby (Commercial), RAC, IVC Evidensia, and ZPG, and previously served on the boards of Dell Technologies, Skype, Cegid, Intelsat, FlixBus, MultiPlan, and Gerson Lehrman Group. Prior to joining Silver Lake, he was a member of the founding management team of the logistics software company GF-X (acquired by Descartes) and worked in various management roles at the Financial Times. He is a Trustee and Vice Chairman of The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales and a member of Mark Carney’s Panel of Senior Advisors at Chatham House, and previously served as a Trustee of the Natural History Museum and a Non-Executive Director of Tesco plc. Simon holds an M.A. from King’s College, Cambridge University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar and received the Alexander Robichek Award for Finance.Zeinab Badawi
Zeinab Badawi
Zeinab Badawi was born in Sudan – her family moved to London when she was two years old. She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University and for an MA in history (awarded with a distinction) at SOAS, London University. Zeinab has worked extensively in the British media for four decades and is now best known for her work in the BBC’s international division at BBC World News TV and BBC World Service Radio on programmes such as 'Hard Talk', and 'Global Questions’ as well as a major 20-part tv series on the history of Africa which she produced and presented through her own production company for BBC World News. She also produces and presents films on opera. Zeinab is President of SOAS London University, a member of the advisory board of the think tank Afro-Barometer, and of MINDS: the Mandela Institute for Development Studies; a trustee of Historic Royal Palaces, BBC Media Action (the charitable arm of the BBC), the Royal Opera House, the Hampstead Theatre in London and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. She is also a council member of the Arts Humanities and Research Council of UKRI; Zeinab was Chair of the Royal African Society (Patron: HRH the Duke of Cambridge); she has served on the board of the British Council, the National Portrait Gallery, the Institute of Historical Research, the Overseas Development Institute, and has been Chair of Article 19. Zeinab has received many awards including honorary doctorates from SOAS, the University of the Arts London, and York University and received the President’s Medal of the British Academy for her services to broadcasting and education and the United Nations Association-UK Sir Brian Urquhart award for distinguished service to the UN. She is also an honorary fellow of St Hilda’s, College Oxford University. Zeinab has four children.Our leadership team
Amanda Berry OBE
Chief Executive OfficerAmanda Berry OBE
Amanda joined The Royal Foundation in June 2022 from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) where she has served as Chief Executive for 20+ years.
Amanda was instrumental in the major changes at BAFTA during her tenure. Successfully positioning the organisation as the pre-eminent global charitable body celebrating the very best work in film, games and television. Amanda oversaw a huge expansion in the organisation’s year-round learning and talent development programmes, ensuring BAFTA is a global leader in discovering, inspiring and nurturing new talent. She re-positioned BAFTA’s annual Film Awards creating one of the most globally respected industry events in the international Awards calendar. Amanda was also at the heart of the successful delivery of one of BAFTA’s most ambitious undertakings to date, the £34 million redevelopment of its HQ at 195 Piccadilly, spearheading a fundraising campaign to create an international centre of excellence, enabling BAFTA to dramatically increase its investment in the next generation of talent.
In 2009, Amanda received an OBE for services to the Film Industry and in 2022 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by University of the Arts London, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the field of Digital and Entertainment Industries.
Amy Pickerill
Creative DirectorAmy Pickerill
Amy joined The Foundation in 2019, to establish The Earthshot Prize. In this role, Amy built and led The Earthshot Prize team, supported the development of the landmark TV and Radio series and Book, and designed and delivered the inaugural London 2021 awards. Amy joined the Foundation from Kensington Palace where she spent a number of years, initially as Senior Communications Officer supporting The Prince and Princess of Wales, and Prince Harry before establishing The Duchess of Sussex’s Private Office. Prior to this Amy spent just under 5 years working in The Royal Bank of Scotland, running the bank’s central media campaigns team, a role which included a secondment of 9 months to Ogilvy & Mather’s international Head Quarters in New York. Amy started her career in HM Treasury, during the global financial crisis, where she worked as a ministerial spokesperson under both the Labour and then, Coalition Government. Her experience in government included responsibility for leading media operations for two summits of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in 2009.Christian Guy
Director of The Centre for Early ChildhoodChristian Guy
He was previously Chief Executive of the award-winning international anti-human trafficking charity Justice and Care - working with police, prosecutors and Governments worldwide to free people from slavery, provide survivor care and help to bring criminals to justice.
Prior to that he served as a Special Adviser to UK Prime Minister David Cameron in No.10 Downing Street, responsible for life chances policy across Government. He is also a former Chief Executive of the Centre for Social Justice, a cross-party think tank working with grassroots poverty fighting charities to inform UK policy-making. He began his career as a community organiser, working with a range of local bodies in an area to tackle disadvantage.
He has been an expert adviser to Government reviews and various bodies, including the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and the Early Intervention Foundation. He is an experienced charity Trustee and media commentator.
